Scandinavian recipes made in America

Honningkager are thought to be from Christiansfeld in the southern of Denmark and started gaining popularity around 1783. For many, they are associated with Christmas but I would be perfectly happy eating them year round. A Honningkage is firm in texture, yet airy and filled with Christmas spices. I have made different versions of honey cakes here on my blog before, like Honninghjerter which was quite an adventure and the short-cut Honningkage which was very flavorful but more like a regular soft cake. For this particular Honey Cake with Buttercream I decided to add a thin layer of Apricot jam which is not traditional but I think it pairs really well with the spices in the cake. I know it is a little early but since it’s December 1st I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. 🎄

Trim edges off cake if hard, cut cake horizontally into two, spread buttercream and apricot and fold layers together, top with melted chocolate

Combine honey and sugar in a small saucepan and heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool until “finger warm”.

Beat eggs, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, orange zest, whipping cream and yogurt until combined. Sift together flour and Ammonium Bicarbonate, then add flour to egg mixture and stir until fully incorporated and smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 60 minutes or until done, careful not to over bake. Check for doneness by using a toothpick, it should come out clean when cake is done. Allow cake to cool completely before assembling.

To make buttercream:

Make sure butter is at room temperature. Cream butter and confectioners sugar together until smooth and creamy.

Assembly:

If cake edges feel hard, trim them off using a serrated knife. Cut cake horizontally into two layers and place them both cut-side-up, side-by-side. Stir apricot jam to loosen it up and spread jam out over bottom cake layer evenly. Spread buttercream out over top cake layer, flip it over and place top cake layer on top of bottom cake layer so buttercream and apricot are now together in the middle.

Chop chocolate coarsely and place in a microwave safe bowl. Melt chocolate in microwave, stopping every 10 seconds to stir and check to see if chocolate is melted completely. Spread melted chocolate out over top of cake and allow to set before cutting cake. If desired, trim edges off cake using a serrated knife. Enjoy!

As a child we occasionally had Stuvet Hvidkål with Frikadeller and my Mom makes the best stewed cabbage in the world, of course 😘 I have not served this dish myself very often because my son and husband was not terribley thrilled with the idea of stewed cabbage. However, I just had such a craving for it the other day and my husband actually liked it, even told me three times that it was really delicious. So either he was starving to death or it was super delicious. I think super delicious!

Melt butter over medium heat, add flour and whisk for 1-2 minutes until roux takes on a light golden color. Slowly add milk in small increments whisking constantly until you have a thick roux, then add cabbage water in small increments continuing to whisk until desired consistency. (If Bechamel sauce is still too thick at this point you can add a little more milk). Season to taste with fresh ground nutmeg, salt and pepper. Add cabbage to sauce and simmer covered for 5-10 minutes. Serve hot with some wonderful Frikadeller. Enjoy and Velbekomme.

Even though Fall is officially here we still have some wonderful warm days left here in Virginia and a White Wine Sangria is still a refreshing choice for a Saturday evening with good company. Here is my favorite Sangria! Instead of a regular glass of white wine, which can sometimes be a little strong, this Sangria is light and refreshing with a citrous touch. The White Wine Sangria is the perfect alternative, if you like me, prefer to avoid red wine and I’m confident that you’ll really enjoy it🙂

White Wine Sangria With A Twist (makes 8 serving)

Ingredients:

1 bottle Chardoney

1/4 cup super fine sugar (50 gram)

1 lime, sliced thin

1 lemon, sliced thin

1/2 Granny Smith apple, cored and sliced thin

1 cup apple juice

pinch of salt

12 oz seltzer water

ice cubes

Directions:

In a large pitcher combine wine and sugar, stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Add lime, lemon, apple, apple juice and salt, mix well. Refrigerate pitcher and at least 1 hour or up to 4 hours. Just before serving add seltzer and ice cubes. Enjoy!

Nutella, what’s not to like. I practically grew up on this stuff 😘 So why not incorporate it into a silky smooth, perfect Nutella Gelato. Guaranteed to keep you cool and perfectly happy on these late summer days.

Combine milk, cream and 1/4 cup sugar in a small saucepan, heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.

Place egg yolks and 1/4 cup remaining sugar in a bowl and beat until thick and pale yellow. Add vanilla extract and mix to combine.

While beating, drizzle 1/2 cup of the warm milk into the egg mixture, this will temper the eggs. Then pour egg mixture into the warm milk in the saucepan and heat over medium-low heat until mixture becomes thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.

Pour custard mixture through a strainer into a bowl. Add nutella and stir until completely dissolved. Chill mixture completely before pouring into ice cream maker and follow manufacture’s directions to freeze. Enjoy!

Like this:

These days I have an abundance of fresh basil leaves. I don’t have much of a green thumb but basil plants and I somehow get along really well. And so I am trying not to let this wonderful aromatic herb go to waste by making some basil pesto. It is quick and easy to make and, although I have not tried it myself, I have read that pesto also can be made using walnuts, unsalted cashews, almonds, pistachios and even sunflower seeds. Besides using pesto on your pasta, it can also be used as a sandwich spread, baked into bread, add a little to your soup or marinara sauce for extra flavor. Today I am freezing mine by dropping spoonfuls into an ice cube tray. Once frozen, I pop them out of the tray and into a freezer bag for later use. Enjoy!

Basil Pesto (makes approx 1 cup)

Ingredients:

2 cups packed basil leaves

1-2 large garlic cloves

60 grams pine nuts

1/2 cup reggiano parmesan cheese, shredded and loosely packed

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

lemon juice, a big squeeze

salt to taste, a pinch

Directions:

Place basil leaves, garlic, pine nuts and cheese into a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. While the food processor is running, add olive oil and lemon juice. Scraping down sides, process until desired consistency. Add salt to taste.

Like this:

Sarah Bernhardkager are famous danish cakes developed by pastry chef Johannes Steen in Copenhagen, Denmark back in 1911. The cakes are named after the famous french actress Sarah Bernhard who visited Copenhagen in connection with her book release and so the cakes were created in her honor. The Sarah Bernhard cake is a macaroon cookie topped with a rich genache, covered with melted chocolate and the original cake was decorated with a small candied violet flower. The cake is a decadent treat.

Making Sarah Bernhard Cakes

This recipe makes approximately 40 macaroon cookies. The extra cookies can easily be stored in a cookie tin with a tight fitting lid and used later. The process for making the cakes is long, but fairly easy. I would advice to break up the process into two days, either make the cookies on day one and then make the ganache and assemble cakes on day two or vice versa. I also simplified the chocolate coating by using Ghirardelli dark melting wafers which is so much easier than tempering chocolate and it taste eaqually wonderful. If you cannot find the Ghirardelli wafers in your local store it can be bought online.

Sarah Bernhard Cakes – makes 15 cakes

Ingredients:

For the Macaroons:

150 gram hazelnuts (5.3 ounces)

300 g sugar (10.6 oz)

approx 3 egg whites, at room temperature

For the Ganache:

4 deciliter heavy whipping creme (13.5 fl oz)

250 g dark chocolate, with about 66 % cocoa content (8.8 oz)

For chocolate coating:

300 g Ghirardelli dark melting wafers (10.6 oz)

Directions:

To make hazelnut macaroons: Preheat oven to 340 degrees F (170 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. In a food processor combine hazelnuts and sugar and process until you have a fine crumble. Lightly beat egg whites with a fork to break up whites a little. With the processor going on low speed, slowly add egg whites until you have a smooth, thick mixture. Drop spoonful’s of hazelnut mixture onto baking sheets, no more than 4-5 cm (1.6 to 2 inches) in diameter, beware that the mixture will spread out. Bake for 13-14 minutes or until they start taking on a golden color. Allow to cool slightly on baking sheet before moving cookies to a cooling rack. Once cooled down, store in a cookie tin until ready to use.

To make ganache: In a small saucepan, heat whipping creme until it just starts to simmer. Remove from heat and let sit covered for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, chop chocolate finely and place into a bowl. Pour whipping creme through a sieve and then back into saucepan, heat to simmer once again and remove from heat. While stirring chopped chocolate in the center, pour creme in a thin stream into chocolate and continue to stir until you have a smooth, shiny chocolate. Refrigerate for at least two hours or overnight.

Assembling cakes: Remove ganache from refrigerator and stir until smooth. Spoon a small amount of ganache onto a macaroon cookie and using a small icing spatula or a butter knife shape the ganache into a rounded cone shape. Set cookie aside and repeat with remaining macaroon cookies until ganache is used up. To cover cakes with melted chocolate, place melted chocolate into a microwave bowl and microwave chocolate in 10 seconds increments, stirring chocolate in-between each heat until chocolate is melted and smooth. Careful not to overheat, as chocolate will then burn and it become nu-usable. Over the bowl of melted chocolate, place a cake onto a fork and spoon melted chocolate over the Sarah Bernhard cake. Once covered, gently tap fork to allow excess to drip off. Place cake onto a piece of foil or parchment paper and allow chocolate to set. Repeat with remaining cakes. If melted chocolate starts to harden, place back into microwave for 10 seconds to soften back up. Once the chocolate has hardened on all cakes, store cookies in a container with a tight fitting lid in the refrigerator. Cakes can be served cold or at room temperature. Enjoy!

Eton Mess gets its unique name from Eton college in England where it is the traditional dessert served at their annual cricket game. To me this dessert is also perfect for a summers evening and if you are having visitors over, it takes no time at all to assemble.

You can make this dessert even easier if you use store-bought meringue cookies, but in case you are unable to find the cookies at your local store, I have included a Meringue recipe here. The recipe calls for superfine sugar, but if you don’t have that on hand you can simply just place regular granulated sugar in a food processor and process for 60 seconds, and voila, you have superfine sugar.

Eton Mess – makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

450 gram fresh strawberries (approx 16 oz)

1-2 tablespoons sugar

240 milliliter heavy whipping cream (8 fl oz or 1 cup)

meringue cookies

shaved chocolate, for decoration

Directions:

Rinse strawberries, remove tops and cut into halves or quarters. Sprinkle strawberries with sugar and set aside to macerate for at least 30 minutes.

Beat whipping cream until it starts to thicken, but is still soft. Break meringue cookies into bite size pieces.

Layer strawberries, whipped cream and meringue cookies into your serving glass, finishing off with shaved chocolate. Served immediately and enjoy!

Place egg whites in a bowl and beat until foamy. Add cream of tarter and beat on medium-high speed until egg whites hold soft peaks. Continue to beat and add sugar, a little at a time, until meringue hold stiff peaks. Beat in vanilla extract and food color (if desired).

Take a small amount of meringue and dap it on the underside corners of the parchment paper, to anchor the paper in place. Load meringue into a pastry bag fitted with a decorative tip of your choice and pipe 1 1/2 inch (about 4 cm) rounds of meringue onto parchment paper. You can pipe the meringue pretty close together since it will not spread out during baking, like a cookie might. Alternatively, you can simply just spoon small mounds of meringue onto parchment paper. Bake meringue in the middle of oven for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours, rotating baking sheets halfway during baking. Turn oven off and let cookies sit with oven door closed for several hours or overnight, to finish drying.

I have been reading a lot about this cake on social media and it got so much praise that I simply had to give it a try. And I have to say that the rumors about this cake is true. This is an outrageously super duper delicious chocolate cake, and what’s more, it is pretty easy to make, and what’s even more, you can easily make and assemble this cake the day before you intend to serve it. So if you have a crazy chocolate craving, this should take care of it. Enjoy!

Black Magic Cake (serves 8-10)

Ingredients:

For the cake:

275 g all-purpose flour (9.7 oz or 4.5 dl)

425 g sugar (15 oz or 5 dl)

90 g unsweetened cocoa (3.2 oz or 2 dl)

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

8.5 fl oz fresh brewed cooled coffee (2.5 dl)

8.5 fl oz milk (2.5 dl)

4.2 fl oz vegetable oil (1.25 dl)

For the frosting:

17 fl oz heavy whipping cream (5 dl)

185 g sugar (6.5 oz or 2 dl)

52 g unsweetened cocoa (1.8 oz or 1 dl)

1 tsp vanilla sugar

Directions:

To make cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray two 9 inch round spring-form pans with baking spray and line bottom of pans with parchment paper, set aside.

Sift together all dry ingredients and set aside. Combine eggs, cooled coffee, milk and vegetable oil in a bowl and beat to combine. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, start mixer on slow to combine and then increase speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes, dough will be very thin. Pour dough into prepared pans and bake on middle rack for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into middle of cake comes out clean. Allow cakes to cool completely in pans.

To make frosting: combine cream, sugar, cocoa and vanilla sugar in a bowl and beat until you have a thick mousse consistency.

Assembly: remove cooled cakes from pans. If cakes have a slightly curved top, you can level cakes by cutting tops off using a serrated knife. Place one cake onto serving dish and spread half of the frosting out over the cake. Place second cake on top and spread out the remaining frosting. Place cake in refrigerator until ready to serve. Cake can easily be baked and assembled 1 day ahead of time. Enjoy!

Like this:

If you have ever had Bang Bang Shrimp you know that they are slightly addictive. This is a copycat recipe of Bang Bang Shrimp which I have altered a little. My personal preference is to omit the hot chili sauce but of course you can turn the heat up or down as you like it. The cornstarch is what gives the shrimp a slight crunch so don’t shake off too much of it and serve the shrimp hot off the stove. Enjoy!

Add olive oil to frying pan and bring up to medium high heat. And shrimp to hot pan and cook for 1 1/2 minutes on each side (total cooking time of three minutes). Remove shrimp from pan and drain quickly on paper towel. Place shrimp in a bowl and coat with the sauce. Garnish with chopped scallions. Serve and enjoy.

This bread is rumored to be the worlds best bread, so easy that a four year old can make it. It is also a no knead bread which a lot of people is going to like and it is baked in a cooking pot. I must say it really is very easy to make although a bit lengthy, however, most of the time spent is downtime. If you make the dough in the early evening, it can rise overnight and you can bake it in the morning. For me this was really perfect for the weekend. Sunday morning we had fresh, warm baked bread for breakfast. Wonderful!

Please note: make sure your cast iron pot is completely preheated before placing dough into it, otherwise the bread may burn and stick to the bottom of the pot. And do not oil the bottom of the cooking pot.

Grydebrød is baked in your cooking pot (in the oven)

Grydebrød aka No Knead Bread

Ingredients:

5 deciliter warm water between 100-110 degrees F (17 fl oz)

1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast

625 gram all-purpose flour

2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Ensure water is between 100-110 degrees F (38-43 degrees C). Sprinkle active dry yeast over water and let sit for 10 min. Combine flour and salt. Add warm water to flour and stir only to combine, careful not to overwork. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature for 12 hours.

Dough has now finished its first rise and will be very soft and sticky. Sprinkle your table with flour and scrape dough out onto your work surface. Sprinkle a little more flour on top of dough. Fold dough over onto itself a couple of times, then turn it over and shape it into a ball. Place dough into a lightly grease and floured bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature for another 2 hours.

Place a cast iron Dutch oven with its lid into oven and preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C) for a solid 30 minutes. You want to ensure the cast iron pot and lid is completely up to temperature. Scrape the dough ball into the preheated Dutch oven, put the lid on and place it back into oven. Bake with lid on for 30 minutes. Remove lid and continue to bake for another 15 minutes or until bread is beautifully browned. If you are in doubt when the bread is done it should sound hollow when you knock on it or the internal temperature should be 190 degrees F (88 degrees C). Turn the bread out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing and enjoying.